Community and Anti-Community
While on the way to Huntsville, AL, for an administrative team dialog at Randolph School about the concepts of community from Peter Block's book of the same name, I am struck by the the question of whether or not building a cohesive community requires a shared perspective on reality. The televisions in the airline club at CLT have on both Fox News and MSNBC, and a few minutes of listening to to chatter suggests that neither network views the same "facts" in remotely the same way. It goes beyond mere interpretation--that, after all, is what editorial license is all about--to encompass alternative descriptions of what actually happened. No wonder the United States seems to be on an increasingly polarized trajectory.
One of Block's main ideas is about accountability; that is, all of us becoming more accountable for what we bring to the conflict, problem or whatever. This would be the antithesis of the Fox/MSNBC polarity. Both networks excel at casting aspersions on any other viewpoint. I hear this so much in schools. Upper school teachers blame the middle school for not preparing students well enough. Parents blame the school for not getting enough graduates into Ivy League schools. Administrators blame the board for micromanaging. Block would turn it around and ask, in the spirit of accountability, what the administrators or upper school teachers or parents do to contribute to the problem.
It feels good to blame the other, but that won't get to solution, nor will it bring people together. I will spend the day tomorrow facilitating a conversation about community. It's a struggle.